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574 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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is aroused in an audience at the sight of a real, live baby, lying in the sleep of innocence that never fails to touch the heart in its tenderest sensibilities.
The baby should be asleep in its cradle, in a room dimly lighted, guarded by an angel bending over it, as one sees in Kaulbach's picture. If the effect of moonlight may be given by an electric light concealed from view, the effect will be the more pleasing.
The chief requirement of the angel is a face that suggests purity and has at least a sweet expression. She should be dressed in the traditional robe that artists have always loved to represent as the garb worn in the heavenly land, and for which white cheese-cloth offers a material that unites many advantages. It falls in pretty, graceful folds, has the clinging property required, and costs next to nothing. The wings should be made on wire frames covered with cotton batting, the threads holding the material in place, if carried in the right direction, aiding the illusion by appearing like the spines of the feathers.
Should the baby awake, its natural motions will not detract from the interest of the scene, but should it begin to cry the curtain should be rung down.
The next scene—"Childhood"—may be represented by a little girl four or five years old playing "tea-party " with her family of dolls seated around a toy table. The more forlorn and dilapidated the doll she holds in her arms as the one entitled to her special favour the better. She need not be required to keep absolutely still, if, unconscious of self, she will pour out imaginary tea in the miniature cups and act quite independently of the audience.
The third scene may follow Shakespeare's order in his "Seven Ages," and show the little heroine of the |
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